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Could Roboy Be The Most Advanced Humanoid Robot Yet?

A new year, a new lurch towards robotic humanoids. Built over nine months this is Roboy from the A.I. Lab at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, a robot that is “tendon driven”—which means its movements are simulated using robotic muscle forces which replicate those found in the human body.

In the video above, Dr. Rolf Pfeifer, who heads up the lab, states their lofty ambitions, “Within only nine months we’re going to build one of the most advanced humanoid robots in the world.” So, no biggie then. But their crowdsourced work, which began last July and was inspired by the ECCE robot, will come to a conclusion soon with the grand unveiling at the Robots On Tour robotic fair on March 8th, 2013.

The work has seen them construct a torso and other component parts that resemble the inner mechanisms—the joints, muscles, bones, and yes, tendons—of us humans in the same time it takes for a human baby to develop. One of the last stages is to teach it to walk. So now, finally, we can perhaps have a race of humanoid service robots that will in no way rise up to defeat and enslave us when they gain sentience.